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This book fills a huge and long-standing gap in the scholarly literature available for teaching the Second Reich. This highly-illustrated book provides a lively introduction to the principal movements in German high culture between 1871 and 1918, in the context of imperial society and politics. Matthew Jefferies reveals that Germany's "Imperial culture" was every bit as fascinating as the much better known"Weimar culture"of the 1920s and argues that much of what came later has origins in the imperial period. Filling a significant gap in the current literature, this study will appeal to students of both German History and German Studies.
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Fascinating
I found this a fascinating and highly original book. It certainly offers something different from the existing literature on the second empire. My only criticism would be that there are insufficient illustrations, and none in color. ... Read more

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Germany of the 1920s offers a stunning moment in modernity, a time when surface values first became determinants of taste, activity, and occupation: modernity was still modern, spectacle was still spectacular. Janet Ward's luminous study revisits Weimar Germany via the lens of metropolitan visual culture, analyzing the power that 1920s Germany holds for today's visual codes ofconsumerism. ... Read more

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Weimar culture
Very interesting slant ona fascinating period.Book arrived when promised and in good condition.Thank you ... Read more

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The Reformation has traditionally been explained in terms of theology, the corruption of the church and the role of princes. R.W. Scribner, while not denying the importance of these, shifts the context of study of the German Reformation to an examination of popular beliefs and behaviour, and of the reactions of local authorities to the problems and opportunities for social as well as religious reform. This book brings together a coherent body of work that has appeared since 1975, including two entirely new essays and two previously published only in German.
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Explores the geography, history, government, economy, people, and culture of Germany. ... Read more

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Modern Germany examines all aspects of contemporary political, economic, social and cultural life in the new Germany.Using a clearly structured approach and accessible language, the contributors explain the electoral and political systems and underline the significance of the Federal system in Germany. They also discuss the legendary German economy, industry and education system in light of recent problems. Modern Germany also describes the media landscape of the nation and the recent reforms to the German language. ... Read more

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At the end of the nineteenth century, Germany turned toward colonialism, establishing protectorates in Africa, and toward a mass consumer society, mapping the meaning of commodities through advertising. These developments, distinct in the world of political economy, were intertwined in the world of visual culture.

David Ciarlo offers an innovative visual history of each of these transformations. Tracing commercial imagery across different products and media, Ciarlo shows how and why the “African native” had emerged by 1900 to become a familiar figure in the German landscape, selling everything from soap to shirts to coffee. The racialization of black figures, first associated with the American minstrel shows that toured Germany, found ever greater purchase in German advertising up to and after 1905, when Germany waged war against the Herero in Southwest Africa. The new reach of advertising not only expanded the domestic audience for German colonialism, but transformed colonialism’s political and cultural meaning as well, by infusing it with a simplified racial cast.

The visual realm shaped the worldview of the colonial rulers, illuminated the importance of commodities, and in the process, drew a path to German modernity. The powerful vision of racial difference at the core of this modernity would have profound consequences for the future.

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Over the past decade, immigration and globalization have significantly altered Europe's cultural and ethnic landscape, foregrounding questions of national belonging. In Blood and Culture, Cynthia Miller-Idriss provides a rich ethnographic analysis of how patterns of national identity are constructed and transformed across generations. Drawing on research she conducted at German vocational schools between 1999 and 2004, Miller-Idriss examines how the working-class students and their middle-class, college-educated teachers wrestle with their different views about citizenship and national pride. The cultural and demographic trends in Germany are broadly indicative of those underway throughout Europe, yet the country's role in the Second World War and the Holocaust makes national identity, and particularly national pride, a difficult issue for Germans. Because the vocational-school teachers are mostly members of a generation that came of age in the 1960s and 1970s and hold their parents' generation responsible for National Socialism, many see national pride as symptomatic of fascist thinking. Their students, on the other hand, want to take pride in being German.

Miller-Idriss describes a new understanding of national belonging emerging among German young people--one in which cultural assimilation takes precedence over blood or ethnic heritage. Moreover, she argues that teachers' well-intentioned, state-sanctioned efforts to counter nationalist pride often create a backlash, making radical right-wing groups more appealing to their students. Miller-Idriss argues that the state's efforts to shape national identity are always tempered and potentially transformed as each generation reacts to the official conception of what the nation "ought" to be.

Politics, History, and Culture: A Series Edited by Julia Adams and George Steinmetz ... Read more

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After more than a decade of reunification, it is time for a fresh update on the ever-important nation of Germany. Bernstein, a German native, judiciously surveys the German way of life in an historical context. The information on the former East Germany brings their integration and struggles into a well-rounded portrait. Highlights of the narrative chapters also include discussion of the immigrant population and its effects on the national image, little-known customs for students, the shifting roles of women, and, of course, the magnificent cultural achievements of Germans past and present. ... Read more

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In this study of gender and religious culture, Benjamin Maria Baader explores the transformation of Judaism during a period of profound change. In 19th-century Germany, Jews became integrated into the surrounding society, achieved an outstanding degree of upward mobility, embraced bourgeois culture, and adapted Judaism to the modern world. During the same period, women moved from the margins of Jewish society into a more prominent position. Baader examines changes in practices of prayer and synagogue worship, rabbinic writings, the transformation of philanthropic and voluntary organizations, and the new roles assumed by women as educators, activists, and religious writers. By documenting the expansion of women’s spaces and women’s roles in bourgeois Judaism and tracing the feminization of Jewish men’s religious practices, Baader gives fresh insights into the gender organization of traditional Jewish culture and modern German middle-class society.

Published with the generous support of the Koret Foundation. ... Read more

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The grown-up Germany of today is able to explore its cultural identity, including its food culture. For some years now, German food has seen a return to regionalism, and beloved traditional dishes have been rediscovered and revived, counteracting to some extent the effects of globalization and industrialization. As well, a host of new culinary traditions brought in with new immigrants makes for an exciting food scene. Food Culture in Germany, written by a native Berliner, is destined to become a classic as the best source in English for a thorough and up-to-date understanding of Germans and their food—the history, foodstuffs, cooking, special occasions, lifestyle eating habits, and diet and health.

The Historical Overview chapter takes the reader on a culinary tour from ancient times through the Holy Roman Empire to the Lebensraum of Hitler and on to reunification of the two Germanys until today's return to normalcy. Chapter 2, Major Foods and Ingredients, highlights the classic German staples. Chapter 3, Cooking, discusses the family and gender dynamics plus cooking techniques and utensils, the German kitchen, and the professional chef as media figure phenomenon. The Typical Meals chapter gives an in-depth insider's look at how and what Germans eat today. Chapter 5, Eating Out, describes the wide range of opportunities for eating out, from grabbing Currywurst on the street, to lunching in office and school cafeterias, to meeting friends for coffee and cake at the Konditerei. German holidays and special occasions are elaborated on in the context of more secular and younger influences in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 covers the German diet and the strong interest in health in the country, with its holistic roots. Food safety, a big topic in Europe today, is also discussed at length. An introduction, chronology, glossary, resource guide, selected bibliography, and illustrations complete this outstanding resource.

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Customer Reviews (1)

The Book I Always Wanted
George S. Williamson has written a book of massive scope that fills in all of the gaps (and wounds) left open by hundreds of other, lesser books. That is because the author is a great scholar and has the patience necessary to complete such a task. I wish I had owned it when I was an undergrad trying to understand the context of German history in which myth emerged as a central concern in Romanticism. I did not have this history available in one single book and had to run all over the libraries copying endlessly from scholarly journals and buying expensive rare books in German. This book fills that need while being a delightful and instructive guide.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of German thought, but also to students of philosophy, opera, religion, and literature. Williamson studied under Frank M. Turner, a Rhodes Scholar and author of The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (Yale UP, 1981). You can expect that kind of high quality here as well, you'll definitely find it. If you enjoyed Suzanne Marchand's Down From Olympus (Princeton UP, 1996), then The Longing for Myth in Germany will compliment it perfectly. I was delighted to see such a thorough treatment of the controversy stirred over Creuzer's Symbolik, and here, as well, one will find an excellent and quotable discussion of Karl Otfried Mueller (finally). It is such a delight to read scholarly work like this, with an objective approach to topics so bantered around and carelessly treated today. ... Read more

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A comprehensive history of German society in this period, providing a broad survey of its development. The volume is thematically organized and designed to give easy access to the major topics and issues of the Bismarkian and Wilhelmine eras. The statistical appendix contains a wide range of social, economic and political data. Written with the English-speaking student in mind, this book is likely to become a widely used text for this period, incorporating as it does twenty years of further research on the German Empire since the appearance of Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic work. ... Read more

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Thorough reading on a very interesting subject
Berghahn's books offers a different way of looking at the German Empire; he offers clear and thorough topical readings on German economy, society and culture and closes his book with a description of how politics worked (or didn't) in Imperial Germany. Other historians tend to write chronologically, but Berghahn chooses differently and, in my humble opinion, this was a good decision, given the breadth of the material offered. Whereas Wolfgang Mommsen puts more stress on the role of the radicalizing middle class in the escalation of German foreign policy with a devastating war as a result, Berghahn paints a more general picture of a German government not being able to contain a pending conflict, while at the same time the interal situation is polarizing.
The many statitics in the book were insightful and I am going to enjoy this book in the future as an important reference book.

Superb Overview
Its great to see this valuable book back in print.This is a concise, combined historical overview and structural analysis of the Wilhelmine state.This book is structured in an unusual way.While it provides the basic narrative history, most of it is devoted to describing the basic features of Imperial Germany and how it changed over the period from its foundation to demise at the end of WWI.Berghahn covers basic demography, economic history, and the structures of politics.Unusually for a historian, Berghahn presents a great deal of the information in tabular form.This allows a more concise presentation.Berghahn is superb on the internal strains of the Wilhelmine state, an odd hybrid of traditional authoritarianism with some democratic elements.How these internal strains contributed to the often reckless foreign policies of Imperial Germany is discussed particularly well.The book concludes with the best concise description and analysis of the outbreak of WWI I've read.Recommended strongly for those interested in modern European history.

Statistical Germany
This book gives the reader a look at the statistical aspect of germany before the "Great War."It shows the reader why Germany thought it could win the war and also why it fought so well in the war.The bookis a little hard to read because it throws quite a few numbers at you, butis still a bit interesting, espescially in the second half. ... Read more

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With the insights provided in this Culture Shock!Guide, you'll learn to see beyond the stereotypes and misinformationthat often precede business travel to foreign land. Whether you planto stay for a week or for a year, you'll benefit from such topics asunderstanding the rules of driving and monetary systems, buildingbusiness relationships and the particular intricacies of setting up anoffice. ... Read more

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Useful Reference for Business in Germany
This guide provides useful information for your business activities in Germany, whether you are visiting for a week or planning to stay for a year. Understand what's driving the Germans (and how they are driving),what it takes to build business relationships or to set up an office. ... Read more

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This book is suitable for ages 9-14. The rich culture of Greece has influenced the world for thousands of years. This book focuses both on the country's ancient arts and its modern treasures. The topics covered include: ancient gods and goddesses of Greek mythology; the tragedies and comedies of Greek theatre; portraits of the great philosophers, mathematicians, and poets; pottery painting, wall frescoes, sculpture, and architecture; shadow puppet theatre, dance, crafts, foods, and national festivals; and, the origins and history of the Olympic games and their return to Athens in 2004. ... Read more

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The striking land of Germany is featured from the Black Forest and Rhine River, to the snow-capped Bavarian Alps in the Southeast. Captivating full-color photos help convey Germany's beautiful landscape as well as Berlin and other bustling cities. Discover the many cultures that make up the German people-Bavarians, Saxons, Turks, and Europeans. ... Read more

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Traditionally, Weimar cinema has been equated with the work of a handful of auteurist filmmakers and a limited number of canonical films. Often a single, limited phenomenon, "expressionist film," has been taken as synonymous with the cinema of the entire period. But in recent decades, such reductive assessments have been challenged by developments in film theory and archival research that highlight the tremendous richness and diversity of Weimar cinema. This widening of focus has brought attention to issues such as film as commodity; questions of technology and genre; transnational collaborations and national identity; effects of changes in socioeconomics and gender roles on film spectatorship; and connections between film and other arts and media. Such shifts have been accompanied by archival research that has made a cornucopia of new information available, now augmented by the increased availability of films from the period on DVD. This wealth of new source material calls for a re-evaluation of Weimar cinema that considers the legacies of lesser-known directors and producers, popular genres, experiments of the artistic avant-garde, and nonfiction films, all of which are aspects attended to by the essays in this volume.Contributors: Ofer Ashkenazi, Jaimey Fisher, Veronika Fuechtner, Joseph Garncarz, Barbara Hales, Anjeana Hans, Richard W. McCormick, Nancy P. Nenno, Elizabeth Otto, Mihaela Petrescu, Theodore F. Rippey, Christian Rogowski, Jill Smith, Philipp Stiasny, Chris Wahl, Cynthia Walk, Valerie Weinstein, Joel Westerdale.Christian Rogowski is Professor of German at Amherst College. ... Read more

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